British call centres to recruit heavily in 2014

New figures have suggested that 2014 will see an upswing in the levels of recruitment for the call centre industry. In a new report entitled “The UK Contact Centre HR & operational Benchmarking Report” it was shown that the majority of survey respondents expect their headcounts to gain.

Telephone answering services up and down the country are working hard to ensure they continue to meet consumer demands. With this in mind, it seems that many call centres are looking to hire more staff. Just 18% of people expect to reduce their numbers, with 58% of those questioned saying that 2014 would see an increased agent payroll. By 2016, the average pay for managers is also likely to rise by 18%, making working in the sector more attractive to many people.

Other findings from the report showed that the length of calls to telephone answering services continues to increase, with the average caller spending 21% more time on the phone than they did a decade ago. In addition, there has been a leap of 56% from 2006 in the length of time that a sales call takes.

Steve Morrell, the author of the report, said: “The strong growth in agent headcount last year, coupled with the generally positive changes in investment and headcount planned for 2014 shows that the UK contact centre industry has emerged from the recession in good shape. The improvement in KPIs along with other financial indicators show that the contact centre has a more clearly-defined role within a business.”